NDS and BlackArrow to jointly develop advanced advertising solutions to enable the expansion and further monetisation of advertising infrastructures for platform operators and programmers; Integration of the two companies’ technologies and expertise to culminate in an end-to-end solution that enables placement, execution and measurement of advanced TV advertising; Leverages NDS’ proven world-class system integration expertise to deliver complex turnkey solutions to BlackArrow’s and NDS’ customers in global markets
NDS leads Series C funding for BlackArrow with strategic investment
LONDON – NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, and BlackArrow, a leading provider of advanced advertising solutions for New Television platforms, announced a strategic business and technology alliance. Together, the companies will offer an integrated suite of end-to-end advanced TV advertising solutions and system integration services for the advancement of next-generation TV advertising.
The alliance will see the integration of the two companies’ technology and further development of new solutions for global markets, focusing on sophisticated advertising capabilities such as on-demand ad insertion, interactive advertising and addressable advertising on linear television – with future plans to enable multiplatform campaigns across multiple devices, optimising on NDS’ cross platform experience.
In a related announcement, BlackArrow today announced that NDS has taken the lead in the latest round of funding for the company – a strategic investment that will see NDS gain a seat on the BlackArrow board of directors.
The existing suite of advanced advertising technologies from NDS, NDS Dynamic™, enables TV operators to manage, deliver and execute advanced advertising applications to improve their existing advertising sales and develop new advertising revenue streams; all reinforced by accurate viewing analysis for programmers, addressability and interactive advertising. The NDS Dynamic suite has three solutions, audience measurement, addressable advertising and interactive advertising.
BlackArrow enables advanced advertising monetisation for New TV. The BlackArrow Advanced Advertising System is comprised of the BlackArrow Sales Suite, which allows television ad-sales organizations to define, manage and fulfil multiplatform, multioperator advertising campaigns, and the BlackArrow Decision Suite, which offers powerful ad decision logic and system interoperability for content distributors to deploy dynamic ad insertion rapidly in on-demand environments.
The combined expertise of both companies will provide a framework for operators and programmers to generate additional revenues from next-generation advertising on advanced platforms, such as on-demand television, enabling programmers and content owners to sell and manage advertising inventory; platform operators to leverage existing network and set-top box infrastructures to deploy standards-based dynamic advertising solutions; and advertisers to better understand the reach of their message with proven audience measurement technology.
“As pay-TV companies invest in DVR and VOD deployments and these gain penetration, they will be able to offer new and more effective targetable and accountable advertising. These services will be added to the core subscription revenues and can become another important revenue stream,” said Dr. Abe Peled, Chairman and CEO, NDS. “Our investment in, and alliance with, BlackArrow further reinforces our commitment and belief in the growing power of advertising to expand our customers’ business.”
“The ability to effectively monetise New TV programming represents a major driver of top-line revenue growth opportunities for content distributors and programmers,” said Dean Denhart, CEO, BlackArrow. “Our partnership with NDS leverages both companies’ domain and technology expertise to create solutions and services that can rapidly enable the global marketplace to share in these new revenue streams.”
About BlackArrow, Inc.
BlackArrow is a leading worldwide provider of advanced advertising technology for New Television platforms. The company’s multiplatform advertising system is designed specifically for video content distributed over any on-demand platform, enabling networks and content distributors to maximize advertising revenues. BlackArrow is privately held, and backed by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Comcast Interactive Capital, Intel Capital (NASDAQ: INTC), Mayfield Fund, NDS Group Ltd. and Polaris Venture Partners. The company has offices in New York City and San Jose, Calif. http://www.blackarrow.tv
About NDS
NDS Group Ltd. creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 70 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their businesses. VideoGuard® is the world’s market-leading conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) technology, currently deployed on 116 million active devices, and safeguarding pay-TV service revenues exceeding $40 billion. NDS middleware, including MediaHighway® which enables a host of advanced services for subscribers, has been deployed on 135 million devices. NDS DVR technology, centred around XTV™, leads the global industry with 25 million units deployed. (Deployment figures as of 31st December 2009).
Headquartered in the UK, NDS remains committed to investing in R&D with over 75% of its employees dedicated to pioneering work at development centres in China, Denmark, France, India, Israel, Korea, UK and US. NDS has also implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and helping digital TV subscribers reduce energy consumption.
NDS Group Ltd. is a private company owned by the Permira Funds and News Corporation. See www.nds.com for more information.
